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Okay kids, we're going to have your attention for a minute
We're going to spend a few minutes here
talking about fishing, about some instructional methods
then we're going to give you some individual casting instruction
and then we're going to move over to the pond
and we're actually going to go fishing and we hope we're all going to catch a bunch of fish
We've got some people helping us and I want to introduce them to you
First we have a Mr. Doug Harbor
Doug has been fishing and hunting all of his life, avid fisherman
and he's going to help some of you kids when we single off into little groups now
Doug, I'd like for you to stand up and let the kids see you
Okay, there you go
Next we have a Mr. Gary Klein
Gary is from California, been hunting and fishing I guess
since he was four or five years old, all of his life
Grew up with a rod and reel in his hand
He is a national professional bass fishing champion
Gary is sponsored on the pro staff of the Zebco
and Zebco, as you see, has put all these rods and reels here for us to use today
Gary, come on down here
We've got a pretty good shore ahead of us today with these kids
and I think, you know, with you and I and Doug
I think we're going to be able to really help these kids
I think there's a few things that the kids need to know before we put the rods in their hands
and send them off to the pond to go fishing
and one of the things, I think one of the important things is to watch littering
Now, when we give you kids these rods
we don't ever want you to litter wherever you go fishing
whether it's a public lake, a pay lake, or a big private pond
on a friend's farm, something like that
Don't ever take anything out and leave trash laying around the lake
And when we get through here and you get these rods and reels
and you take them out of the packaging
be sure and take all the paper and the trash and put it in the back of the pickup truck
Now Gary, what do you think is another thing that's really important
as far as when these kids go out fishing?
Well Roger, one thing that we might want to add is safety
Safety is something that we should always be thinking about
One thing today, we're going to be fishing with a lot of live bait
We're also going to be using some artificial lures
So kids, we have to be real careful when we're casting
Be aware of who's behind you and how you're flinging your outfits out there
because those hooks are sharp and what they get caught in, they hurt
They're awful, awful painful
And let's not forget, probably the most important thing
I don't care how good a swimmer you are
You can't swim if you're knocked out
And when you're fishing around a pond
And remember, some of the best fishing you can find is real close to your house
A little farm pond
Everyone that lives in the big city can't fish a little farm pond
because it's on private property
So if you've got a friend that's got a farm pond
you can probably catch all the fish you want right there
But try to remember this
Even if you're a good swimmer
When you go fishing, always go fishing with a buddy
A friend, a parent
Fish with someone else
And wear a life jacket
Especially if you're around a river where there's current
Or if you're someplace where you're in a boat
Or you're on a bank that's rather steep
Anything like that
Because if you fall in the water
You just see it every day in the paper
Extremely dangerous to be around the water without a life jacket on
Something else, Roger, that I might add
Is that every time you go fishing or you plan an outing
Be sure that somebody knows where you're going
And what time you do back in
That's important
Let someone know where you're going
And when you're going to come back
Now, as we finish these things
We're going to move to another area
A little ways
And we're going to break you up into groups
For some individualized casting instruction
As Gary mentioned, it's very important
That you learn how to cast correctly
And that's what Gary and myself and Doug are going to do
Is show you the proper way
If you learn right
Then you've got it right the first time
Practice doesn't make perfect
Practice makes permanent
Perfect practice makes perfect
Okay, now I want you kids to come down here
And each of you get a rod and reel
And take it out of the packaging
Put it in the truck
Let's go for it
Let's go
Okay, Lindsay
This is the rod that you're going to be using today
It's a push button or a closed face spinning outfit
And the first thing we have to do is put the reel on the rod
Which you see we've already done
And then put the fishing rod together
Slide it together
Make sure that the guides of the rod are lined up
Once you've got that done
Then you push this button back here
To release the line
You take the end of the line
Into this line here
Thread it out through the guides
You have to come all the way out
Make sure not to get around behind the rod
Or to get it all wrapped up
As you thread the line through the guides
Okay, we'll get out here to the end
Okay
Now that we've got the line threaded through the guides
Twist the reel handle so the line doesn't go any farther
See, now the line is tight
Okay, next thing to do before we go fishing
Is to set the drag on the reel
Now this is important because
If a fish is big and he goes to make a run away from you
If you don't have your drag set right
He'll break the line
And once the fish breaks the line
You don't have any chance of catching him
So you set the drag to where your line will strip off of the reel
Just before it breaks
Now if you set this little twist button right here
You'll see it says drag plus and minus
Okay, that was a little bit loose
So let's put a little more drag on it
Okay
Make it a little tighter
That's a little bit
Try it again, let's see here
A little bit more
See, that's tight
That's plenty tight enough to set the hook
Which is what you need
But loose enough that it will strip before the fish breaks your line
Okay
Understand it so far?
Yes
Now we need to take
We need to get some fishing lures
And we'll show you how to tie a lure on
And then we're going to show you how to cast
I'm going to show you a little trick before we do that though
Okay
Lots of times when I've been fishing
I'll find my line kind of like this
After I get it all rigged up
I'll notice that I've got a loop around the rod
You see how I've got a loop
The line is looped around the rod there
Now if you've got a fishing lure tied on you see that
What most people think you have to take the fishing lure off
And pull the line all the way back through the guides
And loosen, unwrap it
You don't have to do that
If you just pull the line up like this
Over the back of the rod
Like that
Now let me show you
Pull it back tight
See there, the loop is gone
And that will work for you if you've got a loop around here
If it's looped around the rod from here to here
You can just take the line and pull it over the end of the rod
And pull it back through just like you do on this end of the rod
And you just have to think about it
Which way is it wrapped around
That's the way I want to unwrap it
But I have to take it around the end of the rod to do it
Okay?
Any of you have any questions on what we've done so far?
Do you understand it so far?
The next thing we need to show you is how to make a cast
And this is where most people make a lot of mistakes
When they first start fishing
Is they want to go sidearm
And it's really dangerous
You've got to learn how to cast the correct way at first
The first thing you need to do is hold the rod correctly
Make sure each of you have a finger
One finger behind that trigger
That keeps the rod from being jerked out of your hand if a fish hits
Or if your hand is slick and you make a cast
So always keep one finger behind that trigger
Okay?
Step number two
Put your thumb lightly on the button
Don't push it hard
Just lightly for now
So you've got the right position
Then hold your rod right out in front of you
All of you
Okay?
Now you'll notice that if you lift your rod up
You can't lift it very far
That's because your wrist doesn't break very far this way
But put them back down now
If you turn your hand over to where your palm is facing the ground
All of you
With your palm facing the ground
Now lift your rod back
See how far you can come back over?
Okay
Now that we've got that much
I'm going to make this back and forth easy a few times
Now
Now that you've got that
Bring your elbow in to your side
Hold it kind of in close here
It's just a wrist action
And don't be afraid to go back a long ways with that back cast
Okay?
Back and forward
And you know we're standing about shoulder to shoulder here
And I don't hear any rods clicking together
So I guess we must be making the fault cast right
Okay
We got that much done
The next thing we need to do is show you how to set that drag
Remember?
You don't want that fish to break the line
We might have been through this
But I'm going to make sure all of you have your drag set right
Okay?
Pull that line out
Wind it up a little bit
If it feels real loose
Tighten your drag
There's a little button right here on top or on the side
Depending on your reel
Makes it tighter or looser
You don't want to be able to jerk it like that
And break the line
Because that means a fish could break the line
But you don't want it real loose
Because you need enough
A tight enough drag
To make sure that the hook gets set
When you jerk and set the hook
Got that much done?
Okay now
Now that we've got this much done
The actual cast
And we're going to let Gary
Show you how to tie the lures on
And let you determine what you're going to fish with
But the actual cast is made by
Pretending that we have a lure tied on
We're doing this now so no one gets
Hooks down in the grass and so forth
When you have your arm out in front of you here
With it kind of up against your side
Push the button in and hold it
Okay?
Have your wrist turned over a little bit like that
All of your wrists turned down
Now when you make the cast
Make sure that even if you're casting into an open pond
Make sure you have something that you're throwing at
Don't just throw at the water
Look at a spot and try to hit that
See how close you can come to that spot you look at
You come back
Straight
And forward and release it as soon as you start forward
That's it
Now two things will happen
The first thing will happen
You'll come back
And you'll go forward and your lure will hit the ground behind you
That means you let your thumb off the button too soon
The other thing that happens
You'll be out here like this
You'll come back
And you'll go forward
And the lure will hit the ground right here in front of you
It means you held your thumb on the button too long
It takes a little bit of timing
A little bit of practice
But pretty soon you'll find that you'll come back
And forward and release at the right time
And your lure will just shoot out there
Then you've done it right
One other thing we need to talk about is the fact that
You all are the oldest of the group of kids that are here today
And most of you have a hand and a wrist
That's physically big enough and strong enough
To handle with one hand
However, if you feel comfortable using two hands to make a cast
You will see Roland Martin and Gary Klein and some of the other guys
On occasion using two hands to cast
The two handed casting method
Does not mean that you're not a good fisherman
I learned when I was a youngster to fish
By fishing with two hands
Because my hands were so little
That I had to
And I learned by this, like this
I put my left hand in front
Now I'm left handed
If you're right handed you would reverse this
I put my left hand in front
My right hand in back
And I came over my left shoulder
And cast like that
Now if you're right handed it would be just the opposite
It would be your left hand back
Your right hand in front
And you would come over your right shoulder and throw
If you feel more comfortable doing that
Then you can go ahead and learn that way
Eventually you'll get to where you use one hand
Let's get Gary Klein in here
With his group of people
And we'll let him show you how to tie your knot
And a knot is probably the most important thing
That we can teach you today
If you don't come away from here with anything
Come away from here with a knot
That you can tie consistently
The knot is the weakest part of your fishing tackle
It needs to be done the best
Okay thank you very much Roger
Well kids what we're going to cover here
Is we're going to cover how to tie
A hook on the end of our lines okay
And that way those big fish aren't going to break our lines
Or pull our hooks off hopefully
And the knot that I use is just a real simple basic knot
We call it a palomar knot okay
Some of you all have casting plugs and stuff here in your hands
And maybe just try to follow me as I tie this
All we're simply going to do is take the end of our fishing line
And go back through the eye of the hook
Or the artificial lure that we're going to be using
We actually want to go back through the eye twice okay
So bring it back through once
Bring it back through twice
Now what we're going to do
Is we're just going to do like a basic overhand knot
If I can do this here real quick
And we're going to loop it back through
And we're going to have our hook hanging like this
With our loop up here
And we're going to reach back through
Grab a hold of the hook
And pull everything down real nice
Smooth and easy
And we're going to form what they call the palomar knot
Which is a very strong knot
Okay and it's a real easy knot to do
You have to spend a little bit of time practicing with it
It took me quite a long time too
But whenever you come home from school
After you do your homework and stuff
Just sit down and practice that knot a little bit
Before you go out and practice your casting
Okay now what I'm going to rig up here
Is probably the rig that I'm going to end up fishing with
And I'm just going to fish with a bobber
A split shot
And I'm probably going to find me one of those nice lively red worms
And the bass and the crappie and the bluegill
That's out here in the pond
You usually can't resist that
What I'm going to do is I'm going to take a little split shot
And I'm just going to put it up about 12 to 14 inches from the hook
Squeeze it shut
Okay
And then just up a little bit above that
I'm just going to put myself a little tiny bobber
Now this bobber here is just going to float
My live red worm
Above the grass out there
And above the bottom, keep it up off the bottom
And while I'm sitting here talking to everybody
And watching everybody else catch fish
I'm going to keep my eye on my bobber too
And when it goes under
There's something tugging on the other end
And hopefully it's going to be a big old fish
And I'm going to be able to reel him in with my
Mickey Mouse rod here
Don't laugh, okay
I'm going to catch me a nice fish on my Mickey Mouse rod
Everybody ready to go fishing?
Yeah
Oh
Oh
These kids faces
It's really a sight to behold
The expressions it's genuine. You can tell they're really excited. They're really having a good time
I just can't impress upon myself how important it is to
To take a youngster and see him catch that first fish
It's an expression that that'll stay with you the rest of your life. I
Can I can almost close my eyes and remember back when I started fishing it seemed like
It was so important every fish like it was the only fish. I was ever gonna catch and I was
Interested I guess from the time I
Put my first hook in the water
Until today I still maintain that enthusiasm and I can see some of these kids have that same type of enthusiasm that I had
When I first started fishing
that's something that will grow within the rest of their life and
Today we are really starting some new lifetime hobbies for some of these youngsters and most of these
Kids today as you look out here, you would expect you to be all boys, but it's just pretty much the opposite
I think probably of the 15 or 20 kids here. We've got today. I
Imagine 15 or so of them are girls. It's strictly not a boys sport
That's for sure and they don't mind putting the worm on the hook that surprised me this morning when we first started out
They just dug right into those boxes and pull the worms out and started putting them on the hooks as a matter of fact
I think the only one of the whole group that was a little bit reluctant to put a worm on the hook was one of the
boys so
The girls are into this as much as the boys are that's for sure
You want me to show you how to take it off the hook
Okay, here you go. You trust me, huh? Let me see. Let me see this hand. Give me this hand
Okay, now take I'm gonna hold him so he can't get you
Trust me. It'd be okay. Put your thumb put your thumb right there. Now. See he can't move when you do that
Okay, now put your thumb right there on his lip and put your other finger down below put your thumb in his mouth
Okay, now pinch now. I'm gonna let now push down hard with your thumb. He can't bite you
Okay, no, no, not on the hook. Get your get your hump thumb off to the side
Okay, get your thumb off to no get it in his mouth a little farther
Now push now hold on hold on to him hold on to him now, I'm gonna let go there you go
Now hold him up so he can take a picture. There you go
Okay, now we're gonna take the hook off
Now I want you to do this I want you to give me your pole
Give me your pole. Okay. Now take put your thumb in his mouth again, like I showed you
They pinch down hard
Hold on to him now take the hook with your other hand and pull the hook out backwards. Can you do it?
Just shake that hook backwards
Hold on tight. Oh
Tight in here I'll give you I'll help you a little bit. There you go, huh?
How's that now? What do you want to do? You want to keep anyone throwing back?
Most of the kids today are fishing with live worms
but I see a few of the youngsters are starting to pick up some of the artificial lures we've got and
Tie them on and I think maybe it'd be interesting to go to Gary now and let him talk to us a little bit about a
selection of artificial lures
Remember that not only can you catch a lot of fish out of farm ponds and little lakes and stuff on live bait like night
crawlers and red worms
but artificial is also an awful exciting way to fish and
Really the artificial baits that we make today just copy Mother Nature's creatures like this little jitterbug
It's supposed to look like a little frog gurgling across the surface
Old plastic worm, you know, it doesn't look like one of the real ones
But it wiggles in the water pretty good and these lures that we use
Primarily for largemouth bass and they really add an awful lot of excitement to your fishing and you can catch them awful big fish
We have some chugger type baits too and these chugger type baits you can catch some
large fish not only bass but actually a whole variety of
Sizes and different species and stuff
But anyhow artificial lures you need to learn how to fish them because you can catch fish all year long
cold water warm water and then clear water and in dirty water and don't be afraid to buy something that looks kind of
Ugly-looking or different something that you've never seen before because bass like
Stuff that that moves the water and gurgles and makes bubbles and wiggles kind of weird
But like this buzzbait right here
I've caught a lot of big bass on ponds fishing with this type of a buzzbait and
You want to fish it on pretty heavy line like these outfish that we're catching bluegill on here
We're using eight pound test line when I fish a buzzbait
I like to use 15 or 20 pound test line on a level wind reel or even on some of the spin casting reels
But a buzzbaits awful fun because you can watch the fish strike the lure and you catch a lot of big fish on that
And the same thing with a spinner bait with these bright orange blades in the white skirt
It's real visible right underneath the surface
So when you cast around the stumps and the logs and the bushes and you're bringing it right by the cover
You can actually see the fish come out and grab the lure
And that's what makes my fishing an awful lot of fun for me is I get to see the fish and that really gets you
excited and keeps you going
Another lure that we use an awful lot
Especially on lakes is like a little plastic worm or a grub and we usually throw this on six and eight pound test line
We can fish it in real shallow water
We can fish it in real deep water to we catch a lot of smallmouth bass on it
Spotted bass and largemouth bass so a little grub like this works pretty good at sometimes also
And probably the last but not least is a crankbait a crankbait is something that almost everybody has and it's easy to fish with
Almost everybody has a crankbait in their tackle box
All you have to do is tie it on cast it out and just reel it in
But remember that the fish is usually swimming behind the lure or he's pretty close to it
So what you want to try to do with your crankbait is always deflected off of some type of an object
So don't be afraid to bang it into a piling
Knock it off the rocks reel it right into the cover
Because the bass is usually sitting there ready to ambush his prey and when this little crankbait comes
Wiggling by like this and it hits a branch or something and it gets deflected that makes it looks like it's wounded
And that's usually when the fish will grab it. So
Artificial lures is an awful exciting way to fish
Prior to on in the Chevrolet
I had a Ford well I switched to the Chevy because I like the look better than the Ford
I found out that they had completely redid the truck. You need a four-wheel drive truck
You don't want to have to get out and lock your wheels in if you want to go into four-wheel drive
You can just shift into it. This Chevrolet truck is the best vehicle I have ever owned
If you don't believe it just go out and try it yourself
We started out fishing this morning at the upper end of the pond in the shallow water and
It was a little bit muddy up there
And as you can see we've moved down to the dock area now and this is something that you'll notice when you take kids fishing
To a pond if there is a dock on it that may be about the only cover in that pond
that means that the fish in that area in that little pond itself will migrate to that dock because that might be the biggest source of
cover and
That'll be the best place to fish
We mentioned earlier today about the importance and the necessity of children wearing life jackets whenever they're around the water
We don't have the jackets on the children today
But we have a lot of adult supervision here and the water around the dock is only a couple of feet deep
Certainly if we were in a situation where there was any danger at all we would have had life jackets on them
When you take youngsters fishing
They certainly don't have the attention span that an adult has
Don't try to rush them. Don't try to push them when you take them fishing. Just let them do it at their own pace
You can probably maintain their interest span by taking them someplace
Where you know, there's a good population of fish as long as there's something pulling on the other end of their line
Those kids will stay interested for a long period of time
Oh
Look at here. We got a good one. Look at this. Oh, look at that fish. Not a good one. Oh
That's a nice bass
Let's get him over here. I'm gonna reach down here and see if I can get a hold of him
Oh, okay. Okay. Oh
Boy ain't that pretty huh?
Oh
That's a nice bass
He'll weigh about two and a half pounds good eating fish
Get that lure out of his mouth
Look at that little lure
You know, I guess maybe I fished all over the United States and I probably fished with almost every lure that's ever been made
And as far as I'm concerned, they just don't make him any better than that. Mr
That'll catch all kinds of fish all over the country all the time
I'll tell you what that's a nice fish. We're gonna keep that one. That'll make good supper. Don't you think okay?
You want to take him and we'll take him over there
Can you carry him over there and put him in that live well for us?
Yeah, there you go. Get a hold of him right there. Take him over that live well and put him away
Well, there's one right there you got him. All right, go ahead real is he still on there
You know folks
Zepcos been around since 1949 and you know
I haven't been around quite that long
But I got my start and bass or actually in bass fishing at a real young age
But I started out catching bluegills little panfish like this and my first rod and reel combo that my parents ever bought for me
Was a little Zepco 33 and I know that I caught an awful lot of fish on it
but folks what I'm saying is take your kids out fishing get them out in the
Afternoons and if you can't take them a little private pond or a public pond or a creek or something
Just get them in the outdoors take them fishing and get them hooked on a very neat sport
Fishing and thanks to Zepco. I think there's going to be many more young fishermen coming up here in the future
You know Doug you've been out here with us all day just slaving away
And I noticed that you haven't been up in the foreground very much
But you've always been with a kid helping them. What what can you say about today?
Well, I'll tell you the whole name of the game is get every one of these little ones to catch a fish and this was
My ultimate goal Brandy's. What are you three years old?
Yep, and by golly she caught two or three fish today. All right. We had a good time Brandy
You want to come back out here and do it again?
Okay, yeah, we're really proud of you
Tomorrow
This is what it's all about for my money. It just don't get any better than this
Remember this when you get a chance
Take a kid and take a fish
You
You
You